This invention relates to sliding doors, and more particularly to door seals and latch mechanisms for gliding doors.
Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic view of a wood frame sliding door in accordance with the prior art, a sliding door includes left and right wood stiles 10, and wood rails 12 therebetween, defining the frame of the door. Wheels or rollers 14 are positioned near the outer edges of the rails, and the wheel supports are secured to the rails via screws 20. Typically, the width 18 of the stiles is 3.5 inches, and, in the illustrated example, the overall width 22 of the door is about 3 feet. A downwardly pivoting handle 16 is provided, and when actuated, pivots in the direction of arrow 24. However, the handle is considered by many to be too large in proportion to the door. Also, for doors of approximately three feet in width, when a person is attempting to open the door by use of the handle, the door will want to tip or pivot on the wheels, leading to binding. This tipping/binding typically occurs unless the doors are 48 inches or wider.
Heretofore, for wood frame doors, it was difficult to overcome these problems. The wheels or rollers 14 could not be securely mounted to the stiles, as the orientation of the grain of the stile runs vertically, and moving the rollers outwardly towards the edges of the door would result in the fastening screws 20 being driving parallel to the grain of the stile, which would not provide sufficient engaging, ultimately leading to the wheels loosening from their engagement with the door.
Another issue that arises is that the door will desirably have seals along the bottom thereof (at least) in order to prevent drafts when the door is closed. However, the seals make it difficult to open the door as a result of friction from the seals dragging, and, the continued dragging of the seals over multiple open/close cycles of the door results in excessive wear or ultimate failure of the seals, as well as making the sliding of the door not as easy.